The present invention relates generally to remote ordering systems and, more particularly, to remote ordering systems allowing vehicle occupants to place orders from within the vehicle and monitoring vehicle movement within and throughout a fueling and/or restaurant environment.
In recent years, traditional gasoline pumps and service stations have evolved into elaborate point-of-sale (POS) devices having sophisticated control electronics and user interfaces with large displays and touch-pads or screens. The dispensers include various types of payment means, such as card readers and cash acceptors, to expedite and further enhance fueling transactions. A customer is not limited to the purchase of fuel at the dispenser. More recent dispensers allow the customer to purchase services, such as car washes, and goods, such as fast food or convenience store products at the dispenser. Once purchased, the customer need only pick up the goods and services at the station store or the outlet of a vending machine.
Remote transaction systems have evolved wherein the fuel dispenser is adapted to communicate with various types of remote communication devices, such as transponders, to provide various types of identification and information to the fuel dispenser automatically. These systems are known to facilitate communications of various types of information between a vehicle and other stations, such as fuel dispensers, toll booths, and parking facilities. The more sophisticated systems provide a transponder on the vehicle configured to communicate with a fuel dispenser wherein identification and financial information is sent from the vehicle to the fuel dispenser to effect payment for fueling.
Systems also exist which allow a customer to order food from a menu at the fuel dispenser interface, however, a customer paying for gas using the transponder must still pay for food at the dispenser or at the quick-serve restaurant from which the food is being ordered. Thus, a first drawback is that the customer is required to pay for fuel using the transponder and pay for any items ordered from the quick-serve restaurant by some other means, preferably a debit or credit card. Another drawback is that other occupants in the vehicle cannot see or interact with the dispenser interface to determine and select the items desired for the order. For example, if four people are in the vehicle, only the person dispensing fuel is privy to the items available for order and their respective prices. A further disadvantage of placing food orders at a fuel dispenser is that such ordering increases the amount of time a vehicle is at a particular fueling position, which may result in increased congestion and lost profits due to potential customers selecting an apparently less congested fueling environment. Thus, merging the relatively new transponder transactions with ordering food at a dispenser may result in a decrease in fueling and ordering efficiencies - a result in stark contrast to the goals of each of these systems.
The present invention provides a solution to the disadvantages associated with the latest trends in quick-serve restaurant environments and, in particular, quick-serve restaurant environments associated with fuel dispensing. The present invention relates to an in-vehicle controller (IVC) having an interface allowing occupants of the vehicle to place orders from within the vehicle for items provided by a quick-serve restaurant before or after the vehicle reaches a typical order entry position associated with the quick-serve restaurant. Occupants in the vehicle are provided a menu on a display of an in-vehicle interface. The occupants may select any number of desired items to form an occupant order. The occupant order is stored and/or transmitted directly or indirectly to the quick-serve restaurant for processing. Financial information may be sent along with the customer order to effect payment for the occupant order. Preferably, the occupant order is transmitted directly to communication electronics in or associated with a fuel dispenser in an environment associated with a quick-serve restaurant. The dispenser electronics will forward the occupant order to the quick-serve restaurant for processing. Alternatively, the occupant order may be transmitted to the quick-serve restaurant via satellite or ground-based communication systems, which in effect relay information transmitted from the vehicle to communication electronics associated with the quickserve restaurant. In other words, the invention relates to the transmission of an occupant order, which was entered from within a vehicle, to the quick-serve restaurant for processing.
The occupant order may be substantially immediately transmitted for processing, or the occupant order may be held for any amount of time before being transmitted. For example, the occupants of the vehicle may enter their order prior to arriving at a fueling and quick-serve restaurant environment wherein the order is actually transmitted to the fuel dispenser upon arrival at a particular fueling position. At that point, the order is passed to the quick-serve restaurant for processing while the occupant fuels the vehicle.
Another aspect of the present invention may relate to monitoring a vehicle""s position throughout a fueling environment in order to associate orders placed from within the vehicle with a particular customer or vehicle at an appropriate receiving point. The receiving point may be a pick-up window at a quick-serve restaurant drive-thru, a car wash terminal, or any other point adapted to receive products or services ordered from the vehicle. In addition to associating the appropriate customer with the order being picked up, operators of a quick-serve restaurant (QSR) can monitor or detect the position of the vehicle in the drive-thru lane or elsewhere in the fueling environment as well as determine when to start order preparation.
The customer may choose to pay for the order automatically as described above, along with the fuel at the dispenser, at the order pick-up position, or at one of the in-store registers associated with the QSR or the convenience store. Assuming that the transaction was paid for automatically or at the dispenser along with the fuel, the customer may enter the vehicle and proceed to drive around the fuel station store along a drive-thru lane and pass a customer position monitor. As the customer approaches the customer position monitor, a drive-thru position interrogator may be used to receive a signal from the vehicle indicating the customer is at a known position in the drive-thru lane. At this point, a control system will alert the food preparation area to prepare the order and indicate to an order pick-up interface and controller the position of the vehicle in the drive-thru lane. Once the customer reaches the order pick-up window, the order pick-up interrogator will determine the presence of the customer vehicle and associate the occupant order accordingly so that the drive-thru window operator can deliver the freshly prepared order to the correct customer.
Accordingly, one aspect of the present invention may provide a remote ordering system configured to communicate with an in-vehicle order interface. The ordering system includes communication electronics adapted to ultimately communicate with vehicle communication electronics associated with an in-vehicle order interface and an order processing terminal at a quick-serve restaurant adapted to display an occupant order to a food processor. The system will also include a control system associated with the communication electronics and the occupant order processing terminal. The control system is configured to receive the occupant order via the communication electronics, send the occupant order to the order processing terminal for processing, receive account information, and effect payment for the order based on the occupant account information.
The in-vehicle order interface may take on many configurations, all of which will include a display and input device operating in conjunction with a controller to provide a menu to an occupant and recognize items selected by the occupant through the input device. The in-vehicle interface will also be associated with communication electronics configured to transmit the occupant order and, preferably, account information, for ultimate receipt at the ordering system. Such communications may be direct, via satellite or via ground relay, such as a cellular communication system. As noted, the preferred embodiment is found in a fueling environment associated with a quick-serve restaurant wherein communications are sent to dispenser communication electronics or communication electronics associated with the dispenser or dispensing area. The order received at the dispenser or in the dispensing area is transmitted to the quick-serve restaurant for processing.
Another aspect of the present invention may provide a multistage ordering system. The system may include first remote communications electronics adapted to communicate with an in-vehicle occupant order system. An order receipt position apart from the fuel dispenser is provided and includes second remote communications electronics adapted to communicate with the in-vehicle occupant order system, a receipt position output indicating the vehicle associated with the order is at the order receipt location, and an intermediate location output indicating the vehicle is locating position. An intermediate locating position located along the path of travel between the fuel dispenser and the order receipt position is also provided. The intermediate locating position has a third remote communications electronics adapted to communicate with the in-vehicle occupant order system. The control system is associated with each of the communications electronics.
The control system is preferably adapted to ultimately communicate with the in-vehicle occupant order system through the first communications electronics when the in-vehicle occupant order system is proximate a fuel dispenser, associate the occupant order with the vehicle or occupant, and communicate with the in-vehicle occupant order system through the third remote communications electronics when the remote communications unit is proximate the intermediate locating position. When the vehicle is proximate the intermediate locating position, the control system provides an intermediate location output in order to determine the location of the customer between the dispenser and order receipt location. The control system will again communicate with the in-vehicle occupant order system at the order receipt location when the customer arrives to pick up the order. The control system will identify the order at the receipt location for the particular customer who placed the order at the order entry interface of the fuel dispenser.
Typically, the order receipt location is associated with a quick-serve restaurant wherein the customer may pick up the food ordered from within the vehicle. The order receipt location is further associated with an order preparation location having an order preparation output. The control system may also be associated with the order preparation output and adapted to control the order preparation output to indicate the customer associated with the order is at the intermediate location wherein processing the order for the customer is effected when the customer is determined to be at the intermediate location.
The present invention solves the unique problems associated with keeping track of orders from a QSR in a fueling environment. In such an environment, orders for pick up at the drive-thru window, or within the store for that matter, may be placed in a different sequence than that in which they are actually picked up. The reason for the possible discrepancy in order placement and order pick-up arises because the orders can be placed at several locations, including from within the vehicle, at one of the many fuel dispensers interfaces, and the traditional order entry interface of QSR. In particular, those customers placing orders at the dispenser will most likely intermingle in the drive-thru line with those placing orders at the order entry interface. The present invention uses transponders to appropriately associate orders placed at different locations with the appropriate customer at a common pick-up location.
These and other aspects of the present invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art after reading the following description of the preferred embodiments when considered with the drawings.